The Desire for Holiness
May 04, 2017
We seek from God what we must give to God. It is a presumptuous request and an audacious expectation that we I could be what we seek to be, holy.
Holiness is fully integrated wholeness before God and within ourselves. It is sincere, focused attention and utter consecration.
It is being that flows through doing.
It is knowing who we are and Whose we are.
It is belonging.
It is availability.
It is the capacity to stand in awe and chuckle at the twists and turns of life as God intervenes in life.
It is what we lack and what we have at the same time.
"Be holy, for I am holy ," (Leviticus 11:44) is a formidable assignment. Yet, every asSIGNment is a sign of hope and possibility.
By God's grace and incarnate sacrifice, we are holy because we have been bought with a price. We are holy in spiritual reality, but we may lag in actualization.
I do.
Dear Fanny Crosby, whose only light was the light of God within her, blind to the world, but ever so perceptive to the Spirit, penned her hearts desire this way. I make it a prayer today as well:
I am Thine, O Lord, I have heard Thy voice,
And it told Thy love to me;
But I long to rise in the arms of faith
And be closer drawn to Thee.
Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord,
To the cross where Thou hast died.
Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer blessed Lord,
To Thy precious, bleeding side.
Consecrate me now to Thy service, Lord,
By the power of grace divine;
Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope,
And my will be lost in Thine.
O the pure delight of a single hour
That before Thy throne I spend,
When I kneel in prayer, and with Thee, my God
I commune as friend with friend!
There are depths of love that I cannot know
Till I cross the narrow sea;
There are heights of joy that I may not reach
Till I rest in peace with Thee.
Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord,
To the cross where Thou hast died.
Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer blessed Lord,
To Thy precious, bleeding side.
This is my personal devotion for the day, the focus of my attention as I set out on my various tasks of living. It is my meditation as I seek to integrate the loose strands of life's demands and make myself available to God and the world as a follower of Jesus.
It is my prayer. It is my intention. It is my heart.